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FastEddie Since: Apr, 2004
#1: Dec 8th 2010 at 12:36:17 PM

This a board for discussions around the Duck Soup MIT Mystery Hunt Team. It is on-topic as Hell, so please keep the shenanigans to the other threads where it is sorta tolerated.

The Duck Soup Team Captain is Glenn Magus Harvey. He has mod powers in this forum. Bug him about stuff related to this board, not Fast Eddie. wink

edited 8th Dec '10 1:34:56 PM by FastEddie

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty
Tzetze DUMB from a converted church in Venice, Italy Since: Jan, 2001
FastEddie Since: Apr, 2004
#3: Dec 8th 2010 at 1:35:07 PM

Yup

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty
GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#4: Dec 8th 2010 at 2:29:58 PM

Edit: Welcome thread with lots of useful info is here. Please check it out!

Ooh! I finally checked today, and this is suddenly all here already!

Thanks for putting this up, Fast Eddie. I must say you really are impressively fast.

That said, yes, this is a forum for our team in the Mystery Hunt. Our team's name is Duck Soup, and yes, we are named after the Marx Brothers movie of the same name.

Information about the Mystery Hunt can be found at the link that Tzetze posted above. Laconic version: annual event wherein people from around the world work on lots of puzzles during Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, starting on Friday at noon. Event is based at the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, but online collaboration is very common. The Hunt usually ends when someone completes the objective, which is to find a "coin" of some sort concealed somewhere on campus, by solving puzzles, and combining their solutions to solve metapuzzles, and combining those solutions to solve meta-metas.

However, this year, the organizers have decreed that the Hunt WILL end at noon on Sunday, regardless of whether the coin has been found. So, that's 48 hours of intense puzzle-solving action.

I'll make an official announcement post soon, which will also be accompanied by an e-mail with the same information to some of my teammates from previous years who have, like me, graduated and are now scattered across the world. They'd like to participate, and would only be able to do so online, and I know that a lot of you tropers might similarly be interested, and I know how fast this place goes!—so I decided to ask Eddie to host our team's online base. Please, a round of thanks be to him for accepting this request.

(There will also be an on-campus contingent; if you happen to be in the Boston area you may contact me if you want to stop by. However, I will not be managing that base, since I'm not on campus, but I of course do have people who will be attending events on-campus. Some events must be attended on-campus, but the vast majority of puzzles will be available online.)

According to Eddie, this board is private to people who are logged in. Thus, you can only see it if you are logged into TV Tropes, meaning that it should not show up in search engine results—a key requirement for an online base, when I consulted the Hunt's organizers about this.

If you are a troper, you are free to join. The only requirement of you is that you are not a member of another Mystery Hunt team.

(That said, if you are, then I'll just trust you on an honor system not to look. Because, while you can cheat, cheating would just make you a very pathetic person, since there is nothing to gain from cheating.)

edited 9th Dec '10 7:20:04 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

Marioguy128 Geomancer from various galaxies Since: Jan, 2010
Geomancer
#5: Dec 8th 2010 at 2:52:23 PM

Do we have to attend the events though?

You got some dirt on you. Here's some more!
AnonymousUser Since: Jan, 2001
#6: Dec 8th 2010 at 2:52:42 PM

I'm not interested in the RP at the moment, but I'm asking: do Glenn's capacities here fit on Know The Staff?

SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#7: Dec 8th 2010 at 3:02:01 PM

If there are events someone probably posted a video of it on You Tube or something.

GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#8: Dec 8th 2010 at 3:11:34 PM

@ Marioguy 128, Sand Josieph: No, we don't have to attend the events, but the on-campus people should be taking care of that. Besides, we aren't likely to come anywhere close to solving the entire thing, so the bulk of our focus should be on solving as many puzzles and metas as possible.

FYI, examples of events, from the 2007 hunt: There were events representing each of the Seven Deadly Sins. The Sloth event was actually a 4 AM event in a dorm's common hall wherein speakers played lullaby music and gradually announced letters, one by one, very slowly, of the answer. On the other hand, Lust was represented by assigning two team members dom and sub roles and giving each an appropriate list of pick-up lines and responses, and having them match them.

@ Anonymous User: What RP?

And I think so. It seems I can lock threads, edit others' posts, and and stuff like that.

SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#9: Dec 8th 2010 at 3:14:27 PM

Lusting after someone required dominating or submitting to someone? At least in terms of the skit?

AnonymousUser Since: Jan, 2001
#10: Dec 8th 2010 at 3:22:53 PM

^^Well, the focus of this forum.

I shouldn't have said "RP", as that's not what this is. Idiot moment.

GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#11: Dec 8th 2010 at 4:00:05 PM

^^ ...I mean, they were forward and response pickup lines. Each person in that event had a role, and they had to match up the appropriate lines—but they could only say those lines.

^ Oh, you don't have to participate for all of it. In fact, I probably won't be myself; I have to play for church services over the weekend too.

You can contribute as much or as little as you'd like. Stay for a few minutes, or dedicate your weekend to this; it's your choice.

That said, what I should be showing y'all is the puzzles. You can check them out here:

edited 8th Dec '10 4:02:06 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

SandJosieph Since: Dec, 2009
#12: Dec 8th 2010 at 4:09:04 PM

Ah, so I was looking at this year's puzzles. This is why I can't get into such schools like MIT. Regardless, I'm still interested in seeing how this all goes down.

Magus Since: Jan, 2001
#13: Dec 9th 2010 at 12:13:53 AM

I probably won't have a lot of time (or ability) to devote to these, but I always wanted to participate so BONESAW IS READY!!

GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#14: Dec 9th 2010 at 10:45:55 AM

Ah, so I was looking at this year's puzzles. This is why I can't get into such schools like MIT.

Oh, don't worry, most puzzles can't be solved by one person alone, even if they're MIT students.

However, collaboration makes them much easier. And I maintain that MIT students aren't magically smarter than everyone else.

Quantumawsome Since: Apr, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#15: Dec 9th 2010 at 12:54:21 PM

So are they going to post the puzzles online, or what?

GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#16: Dec 9th 2010 at 12:59:55 PM

Yes, of course. The organizers have a private server that hosts the puzzles. Each team has its own puzzles page, that is accessed with the team's username and password.

In the past I've usually used something like "ducksoup" and "marxbrothers" for the user/pass.

Vree Since: Jan, 2001
#17: Dec 10th 2010 at 12:35:19 AM

So there is no limit to the number of participants, then? Tropers can just drop in and out as they come or go?

GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#18: Dec 10th 2010 at 7:53:45 AM

Pretty much. Teams can include as many people as they'd like, and members do not need to commit any minimum amount of time to the Hunt.

Edit: That said, if you do participate, you are not allowed to spill the Hunt's contents publicly, say on your blog or something, until after the Hunt. You can, and are encouraged, to get your friends to help out if they are not signed onto another team, though.

edited 10th Dec '10 7:59:42 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#19: Dec 13th 2010 at 7:06:47 PM

I'd be willing to get in on this. It sounds like fun.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Ralphrius Unwinning Ranger from Neo-Holland Since: May, 2010
Leaper Since: May, 2009
#21: Jan 15th 2011 at 8:29:05 PM

Question: how do we flag a puzzle thread for solution and closure?

GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#22: Jan 15th 2011 at 8:31:02 PM

Well, posting here is a good place. I'll check these.

Threads won't be closed, but will be marked solved.

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#23: Jan 15th 2011 at 8:31:05 PM

PM Me or Glenn or post it on the IRC channel.

GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#24: Jan 15th 2011 at 8:31:36 PM

Yeah, Madrugada has overall mod powers and I have mod powers for this forum, so either of us has to go and change it.

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